Israeli top court opens hearing on petitions challenging judicial overhaul

JERUSALEM (AP) : Israel’s Supreme Court has opened the first case to look at the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul.

In a sign of the case’s significance, all 15 of Israel’s Supreme Court justices are hearing appeals to the law together for the first time in Israel’s history on Tuesday.

A regular panel is made up of three justices, though they sometimes sit on expanded panels. The proceedings were also being live-streamed.

“It’s a historic day,” said Susie Navot, vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank that has been critical of the overhaul. “This is the first time we’ve had this kind of hearing.”

Netanyahu’s coalition, a collection of ultranationalist and ultrareligious lawmakers, launched the overhaul early this year, shortly after taking office.

Proponents of the plan say the country’s unelected judiciary, led by the Supreme Court, wields too much power.

Critics say the plan to weaken the Supreme Court removes a key safeguard and will concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies.

“We stand here today with millions of citizens to stop the government’s coup,” said Eliad Shraga, chairman of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which filed a petition along with a handful of other civil society groups.

“Together we will preserve Israeli democracy.”

Threat to Israeli democracy

The hearing on Tuesday puts the country’s senior justices in the unprecedented position of deciding whether to accept limits to their own powers.

It focuses on the first law passed by parliament in July — a measure that cancels the court’s ability to strike down government decisions it deems to be “unreasonable.”

Judges have used the legal standard in the past to prevent government decisions viewed as unsound or corrupt.

The judicial overhaul — which opponents characterise as a profound threat to Israeli democracy — has infuriated Israelis across many segments of society, bringing hundreds of thousands into the streets to march at one protest after another for the past 36 weeks.

The protesters have come largely from the country’s secular middle class. Leading high-tech business figures have threatened to relocate.

Perhaps most dramatic, thousands of military reservists have broken with the government and declared their refusal to report for duty over the plan.

Late on Monday, tens of thousands of Israeli protesters crowded around the Supreme Court, waving national flags and chanting against the government.

The law passed as an amendment to what in Israel is known as a “Basic Law,” a special piece of legislation that serves as a sort of constitution, which Israel does not have.

The court has never struck down a “Basic Law” before but says it has the right to do so. The government says it does not.

In a statement ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin said the court “lacks all authority” to review the law.

“It is a fatal blow to democracy and the status of the Knesset,” he said, insisting that lawmakers elected by the public should have the final say over the legislation.